How Gordie Howe and the WHA transformed the business of hockey

It was infamous for its blue pucks, bouncing cheques and folding franchises.

At its heart was a 46-year-old "retired"NHLer, on his way to becomingMVP, playing with his two sons.

It sounds like a novelty act, but that was the World Hockey Associationin January 1974, halfway through its second season.

It was the rebel leaguethat had the audacity to challenge the NHL and change professionalhockey forever.

GordieHowe, who has diedat the age of 88,was central to all of it.

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Watching a film from that time, it's hard to tell it waseven winter in January, because it wasa sunny day in Houston and the city was starting to go hockey mad.

Inside the HoustonAeroslocker room, "Mr. Hockey" twoyears removed from the NHL explained to a CBC-TV reporter why he wasno longer in Detroit.

"To be honest with you,I wasn't truly happy with what I was doing in Detroit,anyway," Howe explained quietly.

Game changer: How Gordie Howe and the WHA transformed the business of hockey

8 years ago

Duration 2:22

As Canadians and hockey fans around the world remember Gordie Howe, the CBC's Cameron MacIntosh looks back at how the legendary NHLer, as a member of the rival WHA, changed professional hockey forever.

Nothing to do

After 25 years with the Red Wings and four Stanley Cups, an arthritic wrist had effectively ended Howe'scareer in 1971, when he was 43.Detroit gave hima job in the front office, but no real power.

"All I had to do was the crossword," hesaid."They are going to run the club their way."

Howe had also beenout on the banquet circuit for two years, making speeches, signing autographs and taking pictures with kids. There's even a famous black-and-white photoof him from1972,wrapping a stick around a skinny12-year-old fromBrantford, Ont.,who was tearing up a local minor hockey league.

That fall, the WHA shook up the hockey world: For a million dollars, it lured Bobby Hull away from the Chicago Blackhawks to play with the Winnipeg Jets.

Hull became hockey's first millionaire and was credited with establishing the league, but it took another name to put people in the seats:Gordie Howe.

"When the opportunity came to come to Houston, I really jumped at it.They paid me more than I was asking," he said."I wanted to play with my kids."

After earning $45,000 a year in the NHL, the Aeros gave Howeand his two sons, Mark and Marty, $2.2 million over fouryears.

"Signing the Howe family was a great sort of reminder in a very huge way that theWHAis here to stay," said Howard Baldwin,formerWHA president and founder of the New England Whalers, which later signed Howe in the league's final seasons.

For a while, with two stars in Hull and Howe, the WHA seriously challenged the NHL for talent. Salaries were driven up as the league offered players leverage.Howe's influence was changing the business of hockey.

"We did as much, if not more, for player salaries than any one thing I can think of," said Baldwin.

'He added credibility'

Joe Daley thinks so too.He was a goalie for the WHA Jets, and said with Howe in the league, he never felt the WHA was second-rate.

"There is no doubt he added credibility," said Daley.

"He wasn't there to take,steal the money. He performed well, brought more credibility to the league than many people think."

At the very least, no professional hockey player was convinced to take a new hockey jacket over a raise, as Howe famouslydid once in Detroit.

Still, all through the '70s, the hockey establishment did its best to discredit the WHA as a sideshow.Today, the Toronto Toros, Los Angeles Sharks andIndianapolis Racers are all but forgotten footnotes in hockey history.

But there was also some serious talent.Howe once said his first threeyears in the WHA were better than his last threein the NHL.

"There's two aspects to it,"saidEdWilles, author ofRebel League,a history of the WHA.

"One is the heartwarming story of the father playing with the twosons.The other is the high, high level he was still playing at at an advanced age which is, to me, the more incredible part of the story."

In 1979, at age 50, Howewas still a force.

He saw that kid from Brantford againin the WHAAll-Star Game.

WHA led to Winnipeg NHL team

The kid had turned18 and playing centre between Howe and his son Mark,wearing the number 99 andrepresentingthe Edmonton Oilers,one of fourteams, including Winnipeg, Quebec and Hartford home of Howe's Whalers that were about to be absorbed into the NHL.

Willes has a hard timeimagining the NHL would have ever considered any of those teamswithout the influence of Howe and the WHA.

"One of the biggest contributing factors was bringing the gameto those smaller cities that never had a chance before in the NHL," he said.

Baldwin agrees.

"I think it certainly made people realize these are great markets and should have NHL."

Back in the NHL,Howe played one more season in1979-80, playing 80 games before retiring at 52,a feat not matched since.

Of course, no one foresaw that in that locker room in Houston in 1974.

Howe was just looking to keep playing.

But in the end, he arguably did more to change the business of prohockey bychasing blue pucks in a rival leaguethan hedid in the NHL.